Eternity Trap
by Kylarileiza
Summary: Eternity: endless life after death. Shiki and Rima attempt to deal with the repercussions Sara's actions have left on Takuma. Short, spoilers for manga.


_A/N: just a little nugget that popped into my mind when rereading VK. Dubious canon. May continue it further, may remain a one shot, not sure._

Rima stared down at Takuma, concern in her eyes as she placed a hand on his forehead. He tossed and moaned as per usual. "Sara-sama," he whimpered and Rima's face fell like it always did when this happened, which was more often than she'd like to admit.

"She still hurts him even now," Shiki muttered darkly, walking into the room and perching on the other side of Takuma.

Rima nodded sadly in agreement. "It's awfully cruel of that pureblood to continue to abuse and haunt him this way."

Shiki reached down to place cool, damp cloth on Takuma's forehead. "Yes, Kaname-sama asked us to watch over Ichijo-san. Once one has been captured by a pureblood like he was with Sara-sama, you never fully recover." Rima worried her bottom lip as Takuma thrashed about more, breaths shallow and he called out for Sara again desperately.

"Yet Ichijo-san is always smiling while awake and doesn't speak of this with anyone not even us though we live together."

Shiki gently combed his hand through Takuma's hair, noting how sweat soaked the other had become in such a short time. "We should prepare a cold bath for him." They went through this at least once a month, sometimes more. The nightmares were almost a nightly occurrence, Takuma crying out into the dark for Sara. Shiki and Rima were amazed at how far a pureblood could twist another vampire and it scared them to see their friend this way. Even when he smiled they could still hear his night terror echoing in their minds. At least once a month he would develope a high grade fever, accompanied with sweats, chills, and hysteria. He had more than once mistaken both Rima and Shiki for Sara in his hysteria induced delusions brought about by fever and whatever Sara's blood and mind control had done to him. During the day, he was all about Kaname, Yuki, and Zero. Shiki clutched onto Takuma more tightly, protectively, wishing he could free Takuma from all this pureblood stuff but just as Takuma would have never left Sara's side willingly, he knew Takuma would never abandon Kaname's plans willingly.

Rima glanced up at Shiki, brows drawn together in a frown, frustrated at the situation. "Why can't he detach himself from her even now? He has us if he would just see that," she trailed off, one of her own hands encircling Takuma's feverished one.

The first night they had all stayed in close quarters this happened and Shiki clutched Takuma closely to him and cried at the state their friend had been left in. Rima had cried too, she'd been horrified when a strangled cry left his lips for Sara. She'd realized then that Shiki not only loved and cared deeply for her but Ichijo, too. At that moment when Takuma called out again for Sara, Rima realized she loved him, too, possibly as much as Shiki because she wanted to rip apart the one who'd cause Takuma to tremble and shriek like that. That person was dead though and she and Shiki could only watch helplessly.

They knew now that Sara had not always been kind to him. That she subjected him to horrors and manipulated him while he was caught in her trap, only able to interpret her instructions and cruel words as confessions of love. It sickened Rima and Shiki to know his free will had been stripped down in such a way. They both tried to make him forget and both made advances on him, the other fully aware, but both were unsuccessful as he always turned them away with a weary smile during the day and a mutterance about Sara during the night.

That was the worst horror of it, being so close to him yet knowing how far from them he really was. Often Shiki cried in Rima's arms over it all and sometimes she cried into his over it. They talked and planned and resolved that they would stay with him for however long it took to fully remove the pureblood's hold on him even if it meant until the very end.


End file.
